What is the Tomatometer®?

The Tomatometer rating – based on the published opinions of hundreds of film and television critics – is a trusted measurement of movie and TV programming quality for millions of moviegoers. It represents the percentage of professional critic reviews that are positive for a given film or television show.

From the Critics

From RT Users Like You!

Fresh

The Tomatometer is 60% or higher.

Rotten

The Tomatometer is 59% or lower.

Certified Fresh

Movies and TV shows are Certified Fresh with a steady Tomatometer of 75% or higher after a set amount of reviews (80 for wide-release movies, 40 for limited-release movies, 20 for TV shows), including 5 reviews from Top Critics.

This is Steve Buscemi's third outing as a feature director (and first where he doesn't direct himself). What we have is a wry, deadpan dramedy (emphasis on drama, since most of the humor is bone dry and deadpan) about Jom- a perpetually glum 27 year-old aspiring writer who, after failing to make it in New York, returns to live with his parents in their small Indiana town in order to try to get his life back together.

He's got all sorts of things to deal with. His dad is a chronic sour puss, his mom is amazingly cheerful, and his older brother Tim (a divorced father of two whose business ventures have failed) also lives with their parents, who own a lumber and ladder factory where Jim's Uncle Stacy, aka Evil, uses it as a front for drug dealing.

After his brother unsuccessfully attempt suicide, Jim finds himself forced to take his brother's place, which means working for their parents and coaching a girl's basketball team that hasn't even scored one basket in the past 14 games. Things are looking even less hopeful, but that starts to change when Jim begins a tentative romance with a kind nurse and single mother named Anika who seems determined to help get him out of his funk.

It really doesn't surprise me that Buscemi would helm a slice of life indie about a depressed sad sack. I mean, he did it once before, and that movie (Trees Lounge) is one of my all-time favorites. This second foray into that territory, but doesn't have quite the same impact as the earlier one. For one, it's not as funny, or at least not as overtly funny. Well, aside from Mark Boone Junior as Evil, that is. This one is good, but it's less optimistic, though still just as realistic.

It definitely scores points for being wonderfully low-key and very nuanced, that's for sure. I liked it, but I think that the material just isn't as strong. It does have some really good performances, however.

All in all, a decent movie, but probably Buscemi's weakest as a director (so far). Even then, it's still not too bad, so give it a watch.

I really wanted to like it, but I just...ehhh. The film tries too hard, and in doing so, it creates an often unsympathetic protagonist that only makes the slow-paced storyline even slower and more irritating.

I can't really decide if I like these low-budget indy films, and this one is no exception. While there are some fantastic performances from the cast, I can't help being left with the feeling of 'what was the whole point?'. Average overall.

I can't really decide if I like these low-budget indy films, and this one is no exception. While there are some fantastic performances from the cast, I can't help being left with the feeling of 'what was the whole point?'. Average overall.

I was torn by this film, if not emotionally then in how it really resonated with me. I struggled after watching it to decided whether my ambivalence was with the film and it's frustrating protagonist, or with my own life in general. Maybe as an audience we are simply unwilling to rest so deeply in the depths of a pessimist's psyche, where acceptance of what you have is not actually a step to self-betterment (as we so often see) but yet another cruel realization. Brilliantly acted and with the darkest of comedy shadowing an already morose mood, I recommend watching.